


Letters

by Black_Crystal_Dragon



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Illiteracy, Illiterate Jack Sparrow, Implied Relationships, Letters, Long-Distance Relationship, Love Letters, M/M, Pre-At World's End
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2007-05-24
Updated: 2007-05-24
Packaged: 2019-04-25 22:02:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 377
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14388024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Black_Crystal_Dragon/pseuds/Black_Crystal_Dragon
Summary: Jack receives a letter.





	Letters

**Author's Note:**

> This was written with Jack/James in mind, but the second name is never explicity revealed. It was also written before _At World's End_ was released. I don't usually headcanon Jack as illiterate, but this was a fun idea to play with!
> 
> Archived to AO3 21 April 2018.

Jack traced the curls and loops of ink with one finger. He charted each word as he would a difficult stretch of coastline, caressing the characters as if they were written gold, or blood. As he bent closer to the salt-damaged paper he turned his gaze back to the top, smoothing over the first word with a thumb – gently, so gently.

It was the only word on the page that he could read. _Jack_ , written in a hand so elaborate that he was hard pressed to recognise the letters at all. His mother had been adamant that he be able to recognise his own name, if nothing more.

He could read numbers as easily as he could read the stars – to work out longitude and latitude and headings and distances – but words were a different matter. He could have asked Gibbs to read the letter to him, but couldn’t face the shame of it. Asking him to read the letter to him would be to admit that, even though he knew every island by its shape and position, he couldn’t read their names from a map.

Then again, he didn’t need to know what the words meant. There was only one person he knew who could write in such a serpentine calligrapher’s hand, and knowing that told him the message more clearly than Gibbs could by labouring to shakily decipher each word and letter. Jack smiled and brushed his fingers over the extravagant signature at the bottom of the page. He could recognise the first letters – the same as his own name – and they were as comforting as a glimpse of shore to a ship fleeing from a hurricane.

He stroked them over and over again, until the paper was stained by the grime on his fingers. Then he folded the paper up again, stroking the deep creases with his thumbs with a lover’s tenderness, and slipped it back into the heavy envelope.

When he stood a while later and staggered over to his narrow captain’s bunk, he took the letter with him and slid it under his pillow as he lay back and closed his eyes. He fell asleep with his fingertips still brushing the blotched and sea-splattered mark on the envelope that read his name.


End file.
